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California teens are ditching office jobs – and making $100K before they turn 21

sfgate.com

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Re: California teens are ditching office jobs – and making $100K before they turn 21

#11

Post by kubb »

mschild wrote: post #6
kubb wrote: post #3

Can they afford a middle class lifestyle with just 100k? My understanding of costs of living in California puts people in that range in the working class with a very low rate of savings (no hope to escape into middle class even with compounding) or they could afford a small family and no savings.

What does the alternative look like though? Sure tech companies pay engineers well, but there's plenty of other jobs requiring a college degree that don't reach that salary level.

I didn’t say that there was an alternative. Just that 100k doesn’t make them rich.

Re: California teens are ditching office jobs – and making $100K before they turn 21

#12

Post by kubb »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #9
kubb wrote: post #3

Can they afford a middle class lifestyle with just 100k? My understanding of costs of living in California puts people in that range in the working class with a very low rate of savings (no hope to escape into middle class even with compounding) or they could afford a small family and no savings.

Let's run the numbers. If I were an 18 year old financially savvy person making $100k a year in California, I would probably take home about $70k. About $1k, maybe $2k at the highest would be set aside for rent with roommates because I'm 18 and there's very little upside to me having my own apartment yet. Groceries here in Finland are more expensive than I remember them ever being in the United States, and so based o…

They’ll way to start families, not live with roommates.

Re: California teens are ditching office jobs – and making $100K before they turn 21

#13

Post by imgabe »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #9
kubb wrote: post #3

Can they afford a middle class lifestyle with just 100k? My understanding of costs of living in California puts people in that range in the working class with a very low rate of savings (no hope to escape into middle class even with compounding) or they could afford a small family and no savings.

Let's run the numbers. If I were an 18 year old financially savvy person making $100k a year in California, I would probably take home about $70k. About $1k, maybe $2k at the highest would be set aside for rent with roommates because I'm 18 and there's very little upside to me having my own apartment yet. Groceries here in Finland are more expensive than I remember them ever being in the United States, and so based o…

I'm not saying an 18 year couldn't easily live on $100k / year. They certainly can, but you do have expenses besides rent and groceries you know.

Re: California teens are ditching office jobs – and making $100K before they turn 21

#14

Post by cadamsdotcom »

> The cobots have already begun production performing high-volume and repetitive welds, but the technology still lags behind humans in artistic quality and problem-solving ability.

AI reduces the repetitive work humans have to do, freeing up our minds for creative problem solving - and creative problem solving is also amplified by having an AI to dialogue with.

Re: California teens are ditching office jobs – and making $100K before they turn 21

#15

Post by kubb »

madaxe_again wrote: post #7
kubb wrote: post #3

Can they afford a middle class lifestyle with just 100k? My understanding of costs of living in California puts people in that range in the working class with a very low rate of savings (no hope to escape into middle class even with compounding) or they could afford a small family and no savings.

Outside of the Bay Area, sure - California is a pretty big place, and trades are in demand all over.

Will they make the 100k in the lower income parts of Cali though?

Re: California teens are ditching office jobs – and making $100K before they turn 21

#16

Post by colesantiago »

Couple this and investing (and having no college debt) and they would be laughing.

Then they can just live off the interest and in 5-10 years think of buying a house instead of renting.

House prices needs to come down and crash though and more housing needs to be built.

Re: California teens are ditching office jobs – and making $100K before they turn 21

#19

Post by bsder »

Here's what look like some real numbers: https://ibew11.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Residential-wa...

Those rates are nothing to sneeze at, but the work is often hard work out in the beating sun (not everybody is installing data centers in air conditioning). And the work takes a toll on your body.

Those are certainly not numbers that would make people genuinely qualified for software jobs think once let alone twice.

Re: California teens are ditching office jobs – and making $100K before they turn 21

#20

Post by JumpCrisscross »

bsder wrote: post #19

Here's what look like some real numbers: https://ibew11.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Residential-wa... Those rates are nothing to sneeze at, but the work is often hard work out in the beating sun (not everybody is installing data centers in air conditioning). And the work takes a toll on your body. Those are certainly not numbers that would make people genuinely qualified for software jobs think once let alone twic…

> the work takes a toll on your body

It doesn’t need to. Not for welding.

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